Friday, July 27, 2012

Review: A Blaze of Glory

After authoring novels on the American Revolution, the
Mexican War, World War I, and World War II, Jeff Shaara has found his way back
to the conflict that launched his literary career, the American Civil War.After penning a prequel and a sequel to his
father, Michael Sharra’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “The Killer Angels,” Mr.
Shaara now begins a new Civil War trilogy with “A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of
the Battle of Shiloh.”

Shaara in “A Blaze of Glory” maintains the tried-and-true
format of his and his father’s previous novels: using multiple characters and
points of view, to give his reader a more-or-less balanced narrative of the
Battle of Shiloh.Major General Ulysses
S. Grant, Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman, Brigadier General
Benjamin Prentiss and Private Fritz Bauer of the 16th Wisconsin Infantry are
the primary characters on the side of the Union.Their Confederate counterparts are General
Albert Sidney Johnston, Tennessee Governor Isham Harris and Lieutenant James
Seeley of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate Cavalry.

“A Blaze of Glory” begins in late February of 1862 with the
building up the Confederate forces at Corinth, Mississippi, where the Mobile
& Ohio Railroad intersects with the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; and that
of the Union forces some twenty-two miles to the northeast at Pittsburg
Landing, on the Tennessee River.Ulysses
S. Grant, commander of the Army of Tennessee has been assigned to hold there
until joined by Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio.Once the two Federal Armies have united only
then are they to launch an attack on the vital Confederate hub at Corinth.Aware of the impending danger of two Federal
armies bearing down upon his forces, Johnston determines to launch his Army of
Mississippi a surprise attack and defeat Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing before Buell’s joins with it.

Thus with all of his chess pieces set into place Mr. Shaara’s
narrative, switching between the Union and Confederate armies, gradually picks
up steam as the Confederate army, slowed by weather delays and muddy roads,
nears the Union camps at Pittsburg Landing.For those educated on the battle and its controversies, Mr. Shaara covers
familiar ground: the surprise, or lack thereof, of the Confederate attack, the
positioning of the camps (specifically those of the new, little trained
regiments), the changing battle plans of the Confederate Army and who authored
them, the death of Albert Sidney Johnston and the ascension of P. G. T.
Beauregard as his successor, the “Hornet’s Nest,” Beauregard’s decision to
withdraw the Confederate troops out of range of the Union guns on the evening
of the first day of the battle and Lew Wallace’s late arrival onto the
battlefield.

Mr. Shaara places particular credit to Prentiss’ delaying
action at the “Hornet’s Nest” for the eventual success of the Union army on the
second day of the battle, giving Grant enough time to form a stronger line,
reinforced by the timely arrival of Buell’s army at the river landing.I suspect this was done for dramatic
purposes, as modern scholarship currently places more importance on Sherman’s
fighting at the crossroads near Shiloh Church.

The book’s thirty-seven chapters are spread almost equally
between the two opposing armies; 19 chapters for the Union and 18 chapters for
their Confederate opposition.Albert
Sidney Johnston is the most featured character in the novel with 10 chapters, followed
by Sherman and Bauer both with 8, Seeley at 5, Harris with 3, Grant, commander
of the Union forces, strangely with only 2 and Prentiss with 1.

The novel is thoroughly researched, Mr. Shaara states in
that he uses only original sources from people who were there.It is well written and is an easy and enjoyable
read.Whether you are an advanced
student of the Civil War or a casual reader of novels you will be entertained,
and might just learn a little something along the way.

“A Blaze of Glory” is the first in a new Civil War trilogy,
authored by Jeff Shaara, covering events in the war’s western theater.The second volume of the series, “A
Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg,” will be released May
21, 2013.The third volume in the
trilogy will focus on Sherman’s March to the Sea and the Carolina Campaign.